WWE superstar Bayley recently spoke to Sporting News where the SmackDown women’s champion discusses performing at WrestleMania for no fans, how she’s embraced her heel persona, and the reason she changed up her look, particularly her haircut. Highlights are below.
On her new look, specifically her haircut:
I had to just cut away the old life I was living, so that was the symbolic thought behind it. But honestly, the night that I came out with short hair, I just did it that morning, or that afternoon, actually, in the arena. Jackie, who is my awesome makeup artist that works with WWE, is also a hairstylist. So she came up with this idea, and it matched my idea, and we went with it. I feel like every time she cuts it for me, we just keep going shorter because I’m like, “You know what, screw it. Let’s try it.” So I’m just in that stage of trying different things. I love it. At first, I was in shock, but now I love it, mainly because I don’t have to use as much shampoo or conditioner and not as long on the hair dryer.
Embracing being a heel:
I’m still learning right now. When I first realized I was going to be doing this, I was so happy. I was like, “This is a challenge I’ve always wanted to do.” I always felt like I’d be good at (it), and I could maybe do even better than the other character. I was really excited. Once I started going on it, I was like, “Oh, dude, this is so hard. This is not what I expected it to be. I have to learn even more, and I have to just go about it a totally different way. (I have to) go about my matches a different way.” I am still learning to this day, like, I’m watching WrestleMania back right now just to kind of watch myself and see what I don’t like and see what I liked about what I was doing and my demeanor and everything.
Asking Daniel Bryan for advice:
I went out of my way to also ask Daniel Bryan when we were on tour one time because he also had gone from being the lovable guy and the guy that everybody was cheering for to the guy that turned his back on everybody. I wanted to get his take on what was difficult for him, and he helps me out a lot just as far as where to step up my aggressiveness and everything.
Enjoying her recent run as opposed to a year ago:
I would say so. A year ago, I was at that point doing the same thing for six or seven years. So it kind of just became natural, and it became the same old thing. I knew it was going to get a reaction. I knew how I wanted to react to my opponent. Now I’m at a point where everything’s so new to me, and I’m learning what works. I’m literally learning all over again. It’s like I started over. I think that it’s like 18 again and just like, “Man, this is the best thing ever.
Competing at WrestleMania for no fans:
It was crazy, but in the best way. Me and Sasha (Banks) were in the first actual match on “SmackDown” that aired in front of nobody. Every single day we’re doing it, and being like. “This is crazy. How are we going to do this match with nobody there? How are we going to do this promo with nobody there? Who do we talk to? Where do we direct our attention?” It’s always just the craziest feeling going out there. But I would say it was such a learning experience. Now, if anybody ever asked us if we can go out there and wrestle in front of nobody, we can be like, “Yeah, we can do it. We’ve done it a million times.” I think it turned out to be such a cool experience and knowing that you can pull that off and (WWE) pulled off WrestleMania. It was something that I was looking forward to all week. I was doing nothing all day at home and just doing my routine, but this was something for me that it felt like a party.